Wonderful” Celtic Teenager Singled Out By Brendan Rodgers After First Senior Goal
Celtic defeated Queen’s Park by six goals to four in their second friendly of pre-season last night.
It was a thrilling encounter for the neutral but from a green-and-white perspective, there were several positives and negatives to take from the game.
The manager, though, was happy with young Francis Turley. The 18-year-old netted the Bhoys’ sixth of the night, neatly finishing from the edge of the box after a well-worked move.
Post-match, Rodgers waxed lyrical about the midfielder.
“I’ve only really seen him (Turley) the last few days and you can see he is a football player”, he said (Celtic FC on YouTube).
He does some wonderful things with the ball and has a natural instinct to get into the box so I was really pleased with him in that last final half hour.”
After signing for the Hoops from Glentoran in 2022, Turley has turned out for the Bhoys’ under-18s and B sides.
This pre-season has been his first chance to impress in the first team and he’s grasped it.
It remains to be seen whether Turley will be on the plane to the USA for some more friendlies, but he has already caught the eye of Rodgers in his limited time with the senior squad. That only bodes well.
